Arithmetic Series - Bucky the Badger

As part of "flipping" my classroom I will be using my class time to have my students do some "Learning Through Problem Solving" (LTPS)

We have not yet studied arithmetic series. So, the following activity is a LTPS activity because the students have not yet learned any of the formulas associated with arithmetic sequences.

I will be using John Scammell's 7 step Learning Through Problem Solving approach.

The following activity was originally created by Dan Meyer.

Step 1: Show video Bucky the Badger


Step 2: Ask the students- What question do they want to explore?
Hopefully the students want to know how many push-ups will do during the entire game

Step 3: Elicit student guesses: Have the students make guesses about how many push-ups they think Bucky will do. As a class, agree on a range of reasonable answers.

Step 4: Ask the students what further information they need to answer their question. They will need to know the scoring summary for Wisconsin for the game. Show them the following data to provide them with the necessary information.

 
Step 5: Allow students to work on the problem. Students who finish could be given an extension like, "Does it matter where in the sequence the field goals are kicked?" “Where should the field goals be kicked to have Bucky do the least number of push-ups?”

Step 6:Share student solutions. Have students share solutions with other students, or with the whole class using a document camera or chart paper.

Step 7: Show the answer video.